3s lose a heartbreaker

Harry Hickey tells all about the 3s adventure to Pontypridd.

The day got off to a cracking start with the sun shining and Mark the legendary bus driver informing us he’d get the tunes on when we hit the motorway. Mark did lose a few points though as we arrived somewhere in Southern wales for him to declare he had no idea where we were. But a cricket ground was spotted and all was saved. Warm up was very successful with Fletcher getting megged to let in a goal. Paddy then strode out to the middle and won the toss choosing to bat first on what looked an absolute batting track 400+ here we come.

Harding and Paddy opened up nicely with Harding scoring half is runs in one over before Paddy played inside a full one and got caught at slip. Harding soon followed missing a straight one (that he informed us had done bits) leaving us 35-2. But Bertie and Fischer steadied the ship with some beautiful looking straight drives from the big man. With Crane declaring that he “could see into another dimension” after trying on Fisher’s sun-glasses it looked like everything was going well. Unfortunately Bertie then chipped one to extra cover, the ‘chucker’ bowler, and his partnership with Fisch came to an end. Fletcher came in and kept the momentum going with another 50 partnership between himself and Fisher before the later managed to get out nut megging himself to the spinner and being bowled. Hickey joined Fletcher with Bristol 125-4 they then decided that the best way to score was to run a lot as some of USW’s fielding was questionable. Fletcher then brought up his half century in good time and all was looking good. All was looking good at 173-4 with 10 overs to go however an almighty collapse was approaching, Hickey went first smashing one back at the bowler, Fletcher then missed one and it was safe to say despite the odd heave into the leg side from Norrington the tale didn’t wag. Leaving us bowled out for 198 a little short of what we wanted but defendable.

Looking out over the middle

Tea was a huge success with Loyd summing up well when saying “this looks peng” and the large variety of sausage products seeming to go down well. So with a team talk, sun cream applied and Hickey going out to field in Crane’s inside out Adidas t-shirt (because he forgot his top) things were looking good. Crane and Norrington got off to a good start with the new ball and USW’s no.2 and no.3 back in the pavilion early. However with their next two batsmen scored freely with a tidy spell from Ewan and a hit and miss spell form Fischer. The spinners then came in and slowed the rate a little as Bristol tried to dig in for a game that looked like it was getting away from them. Anderson eventually got the break through with their opener going for a well-made 64. This gave us our opening. Crane came back and bowled with venom to finish the day with figures of 10-3-19-2 having bowled the chucker middle peg whilst playing a leave. Another wicket from Anderson of his last ball and another from Norrington left them 7 down only for hickey to bowl an absolute pie that bowled their 9 leaving USW 165-8 with about 7 overs to go. A very tense finish then followed with the set batsman trying his best to control the strike and there 10 somehow getting bat on ball to keep out Norrington it all came down to the last over 4 to win could Norrington keep them out. With 2 dot balls to start it all started well but the 3rd ball was squeezed through cover by their set bat who finished with 91* and off to the fence it went. That was that and a very disappointing end to a good game, one that Bristol felt they should have won but the batting had probably left them 20 or 30 runs short.

Chai Pani DOTD:Harry Hickey forgetting his whites top.

Bath Ales MOTM:Charlier Fletcher for his 50.

WG Grace Stylish Player of the Match:Matt Crane for his bowling spells.

Nib Nibs Perfect Catch of the Match: Harry Harding for a smart underedge catch off the spinner

Sandwich Sandwich Wet Sandwich of the Match:James Fischer for getting megged by the slowest spinner in the world.

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